


The Past Long Gone

by essyr



Series: The Prince and the Knight [1]
Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Edo-Jerza, Edolas, F/M, Growing Up Together, Kid Fic, Mystwalker
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-09-01
Updated: 2014-09-01
Packaged: 2018-02-15 19:22:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 7,585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2240547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/essyr/pseuds/essyr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Part 1 of The Prince and the Knight. In which Erza and Jellal are childhood friends, Lily is a slave-driver (when training), and everyone seems to think they're dating (except they're not because they're like ten and ew cooties).</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. July 14, X774

**Author's Note:**

> First of all, there isn't enough Mystwalker fic in this fandom, so of course I had to write some. To be honest, this pretty much is one of my (favorite) headcanons. I really like Erza Knightwalker and Mystogan (separately and together), and I really want Hiro Mashima to bring the Edolas characters back (or at least show us what's going on over there). 
> 
> Second of all, I didn't actually check ages before I started to write this; the extensive research on Edolas and FT canon began AFTER I wrote most of it, so while in canon, Jellal and Erza (and therefore most likely Mystogan and Knightwalker) are the same age, I always thought of them as Jellal being a year older, so there's a one-year age difference in this fic, too.
> 
> Thirdly (look! I changed it up cuz I'm a cool kid), I took a lot of liberties making stuff up about Edolas as well as the characterizations of Mystogan, Knightwalker, Hughes, etc., which brings me to the disclaimer:
> 
> Any and all recognizable characters, settings, plots, etc. belong to the one and only Hiro Mashima, but anything else belongs to the one and only me. I also do not make any money off of this thing.

He found her when he was playing outside. His ball had rolled away into the bushes around the grounds and he went to go get it. Instead, he found a little girl about his age curled up in a ball. There was a dirty, white bandage wrapped around one of her eyes, and her hair was so dirty and matted he could barely see the bright shock of red underneath the grime. She clutched something in her right hand. It was somewhat pinned underneath her small, frail body and looked like a weapon of some sort. He couldn't tell if she was asleep or dead.

"Excuse me," he said, gently shaking her shoulder, "Are you okay?"

The girl blinked, and he was relieved that she wasn't dead. She turned her head to face him. "What does it matter to you?" she asked gruffly, her voice hoarse, and the boy shrank back a little bit at her hostile tone.

"Just trying to help," he retorted. "Where are your parents?"

She looked him straight in the eye. "Dead."

The boy was unfazed. "Well, then you can come home with me. Father might not like it, but I can get you to stay with one of the servants. What do you say?"

"I don't even know your name..." she said timidly.

He smiled and held out a hand. "I'm Jellal. And you?"

She grasped his hand firmly with a stronger grip than he expected. "Erza."

The ball was forgotten.

* * *

 

Getting Erza to his room wasn't as hard as Jellal thought it'd be. He miraculously managed to avoid all the patrols on the way back. He found that talking with Erza was easy, and he enjoyed the company of the younger girl. Before he knew it, they were at the palace.

"What a beautiful castle," Erza sighed. "Whoever gets to live there must be really rich and lucky!"

"It's the palace," Jellal explained to her, grinning. "And it's where you're gonna live with me!"

Erza's eyes were round as saucers. "You... you mean..."

"Prince Jellal of Edolas, at your service," he said with an exaggerated bow.

"O-ouji," Erza stuttered.

"Yup! I'm the prince, and you can be the princess!" Jellal exclaimed. "We'll be Jellal-ouji and Erza-hime!"

Erza laughed. It was a beautiful sound. "Yeah right," she said. "Like I'm gonna be a princess. I wanna be a knight! With this!" She raised her spear-thing in the air.

"What is that?" Jellal asked. "It looks dangerous. Where'd you get it?"

"This? This is my Ten Commandments!" she said, beaming. She dropped her voice down to a fake whisper. "It's magic! My daddy gave it to me." Her face darkened slightly but then she smiled again. "It's really powerful! It's the most powerful weapon in the world! _Saikyou no buki_!"

"Can I see it?" Jellal asked. Erza nodded and handed the spear to him. It was lighter than it looked. The boy could feel the magic coursing through the weapon. It was beautiful. It was alive. "You know, you should show Lily this. I bet he'd let you train with me. Then, when you're older, you can join his Magic War Division! There aren't many girls, but I'm sure _you_ could do it! I'm certain of it!"

Erza took the spear back. "Thanks. Nothing would make me happier. Wait, who's Lily?"

"Pantherlily!" Jellal exclaimed happily. "He's an Exceed. He saved me a few years ago, but then got banished from Extalia because they're all poops there, so now he's the Captain of the Edolas Magic War Division! He's really cool and strong. You'd like him. Maybe you can stay with him! I'm sure he wouldn't mind."

Erza laughed again, and Jellal couldn't help but notice how nice and fluffy it made him feel inside.

"We have to go in now," he said. "Don't mind the guards if they say you can't come in; I'm the prince and they have to obey me, and I say you come with me!"

Erza smiled at the older boy's antics and followed him to the doorway.

"Ouji-sama," one of the guards greeted, "Welcome back. Who's the girl?"

"She's a friend," Jellal replied. "Her name's Erza, and she's going to be a knight in the Magic War Division!"

The guard chuckled. "Your father's not going to be happy about it."

"So? She's my friend. I'm sure he'll understand. I'm going to ask Lily to take her in. She can learn a lot from him!"

The guard shrugged. "All right, kid. If you say so." He opened the door and the two kids went in.

Once they were inside, Erza tugged on Jellal's shirt. "If I'm a bother, then it's okay. I'll go. I don't want to inconvenience you."

Jellal turned to her and smiled. "It's no trouble at all. It's huge here, with more food than you could ever dream of! To-san's just got a heart cold as ice and black as coal. He won't care that you're here as long as you don't cause any trouble."

Erza smiled weakly and looked around. "It's really fancy here," she said, "And it's so big! How do you not get lost?"

"Secret," he replied, winking. "C'mon, follow me! I'll race you!"

"But I can't race you if I don't know where I'm going!" Erza pointed out.

Jellal smiled deviously. "You can, as long as you don't go in front of me!"

* * *

Once the two reached Jellal's room, he led Erza into the bathroom and began to fill the tub with warm water. "Once it's full, turn off the tap and get in. I'm going to go find some clothes for you. I'll knock before I come back in."

Erza nodded and the little prince left the room, closing the door before he ran off to his closet to find some clothes for her. It took a while; he was bigger than her, so he had to look for clothes that he pretty much outgrew already, but the servants usually took those away whenever they saw them in the laundry, but before long, he found a small, black shirt and a pair of navy blue pants that he thought would fit his new friend. He also got a pair of his smaller undershorts and shoes, noting her bare feet when he found her. He folded up the clothes and stacked them in a neat pile. Taking a breath, he knocked on the bathroom door.

"Erza! I have your clothes. Can I come in?"

A soft, "Come in!" was heard and Jellal pushed the door open. Erza was sitting in the tub, her eyes closed and submerged in the water up to her chin. She opened them as Jellal walked in. The bandage was still around her face.

"Jellal! The water's really nice! Thank you for your hospitality," she said.

"Sorry about the clothes," he said. "They're mine, but I'm bigger than you, so they'll probably be a bit big."

"It's okay," she replied. "Come sit by me; it's lonely with you so far away."

Jellal walked over to the tub and sat down, leaning against it, his back to Erza. "This way I won't see you," he explained sheepishly. Erza laughed. "After this," he said, "I need to take you to see the doctor to get your eye looked at. Then I'll take you to Pantherlily so you can show him your Ten Commandments, and then we can go play in the amusement park!"

"There's an amusement park here?" Erza asked, surprised.

"Yeah! To-san had it built last year. It's amazing!"

It was silent for a while, but it was a comfortable silence; the two kids, though they'd only known each other for a few hours, were already close as can be.

"Erza," Jellal began, "What's your second name?"

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Well, most people have two names, one for themselves and one for their family. What's the name for your family?" Jellal explained.

"I guess I don't have one, then," she said nonchalantly.

There was a small silence. "It must be lonely," Jellal finally said, "Having no second name. No family to connect to."

"You only have one name," Erza pointed out.

"Yeah, but I'm the prince! I don't need a second name! Maybe 'of Edolas' is my second name!" he told her. "My people are my family." He thought for a moment. "I know! I can come up with a second name for you!"

"Jellal, you can't just name me like a dog," Erza said.

"Don't worry, Erza! I'll come up with something good. I promise!"

She chuckled. "You act so young, Jellal!"

"And you act so old! I thought I was supposed to be the older one!" he retorted.

"Maybe you're not. How old are you?"

"I'm ten! My birthday was last week! The cooks made a really yummy cake, and Pantherlily cut it with his giant sword, and it was so cool!" He turned his head to look at his friend. "What about you?"

"Me? I'm eight, but I'll be nine real soon. I guess you really are older than me."

"Yeah, I guess I am."

"Though you don't really act like it," she muttered under her breath.

"Hey!"

* * *

The doctor said that Erza's eye was going to be okay. Without magic, she would have been blinded, but luckily, the doctor had a potion that would work to restore her left eye back to working condition. She still had to wear an eye patch until it recovered, though, and Erza walked out of the infirmary with a dark, black eye patch.

"Sugoi! You look really cool, Erza!" Jellal told her when he saw her outside, handing Ten Commandments back to her.

She smiled shyly, taking the weapon. "You really think so?"

"Yeah! You look like a warrior who was injured in battle! Not that I want you to be injured, but you still look really, really awesome!" He grinned. It was a goofy grin, and Erza couldn't help but laugh. "Come on," he said, grabbing her hand, "We have to go see Lily now!"

The two raced through the halls of the palace.

"Where does Lily live?" Erza asked. "Does he have a room in the castle, too?"

"No," Jellal replied. "Technically, as a captain, he was supposed to, but he insisted on staying in the barracks with his troops."

"Oh," Erza said. "I guess being an Exceed makes him feel lonely, too."

He looked at his new friend in surprise. He never thought of that before. "I guess it does."

* * *

Despite the whole purpose of his living there being to show that he was the same as his subordinates, Pantherlily's quarters were much better than the other neighboring barracks. It was bigger and most likely better-furnished than the others, but Jellal supposed that it was the thought that counted.

Upon their arrival, he'd knocked confidently on the door. It opened to reveal a very big, tall, and fierce-looking black Exceed wearing dark green pants, a cream colored cape, a fairly plain metal breastplate, and nondescript metal cuffs on his forearms.

"Lily!" Jellal exclaimed, throwing himself at the Exceed.

"Ouji!" He caught the boy easily. "How are you, Jellal?"

"I'm fine. This is Erza! She doesn't have a second name, but I'm going to come up with a really cool one for her. She wants to be a knight, and her dad gave her a magic spear, so I was wondering if you could train her and later take her on as part of your Magic War Division," he said quickly all in one breath.

"Slow down, ouji-sama!" Lily laughed, setting the boy down. He looked at Erza. "What happened to your eye, little one?"

"Stabbed in the eye." It was so fast and quiet that Jellal almost didn't hear it.

"Well, looks like you've got quite the story behind that. You can match me!" the Exceed laughed, meaning the scar running through his left eye.

Erza shook her head. "The doctor took care of it with magic. I'm not going to have any scars or problems with seeing at all."

"That's good, kid. Wouldn't want a pretty face like yours be damaged."

She laughed. "But you're not damaged either! Your scar looks cool. It makes you look strong and powerful and brave."

"He is!" Jellal assured her. "Lily is the strongest warrior in all of Edolas! Which reminds me." He turned to the Exceed. "Can you take a look at Erza's spear? It's magic; I can feel it, but she doesn't know how to use it. Can you train her to be a magic knight like you're training me?"

Pantherlily laughed. "Sure." Erza passed him the spear, and his eyebrows rose in surprise when he held it. "This is a powerful weapon. What's it called?"

"It's the magic spear, Ten Commandments!" she boasted. "Daddy told me that it has ten forms, each with different powers!"

Lily closed his eyes and the spear glowed before changing into a claw-like cannon. "It appears that you're right. The magic feels strange, though. It doesn't respond well to me." He handed the spear back in its regular form. "It likes you, though.  It seeks you. Can you feel it, Jellal?"

The boy nodded. "Yeah. I think that using Ten Commandments is going to be natural for you, Erza. And then you'll be the most powerful warrior ever. _Saikyou no senshi_! No offense to Lily," he added, looking at the captain.

He laughed. "None taken. I think that Erza will be a fine warrior when she grows up. She'll put all of us to shame."

 


	2. July 15, X774

Erza began joining Jellal in his training sessions with Pantherlily. The Exceed drove them hard, but he was pleased to note that Erza, like Jellal, had a lot of potential and raw talent. She was intuitive and strategic in sparring, and almost managed to take the older boy down on the first day. The only problem was her strength; she was still a little girl, and her body was still weak and malnourished from her life before. Both parties were trying to beef her up; Jellal would give her absolutely huge helpings at meals, while Lily gave her a rigorous training regimen to build her strength up. Most days, she thought she'd drop dead from exhaustion, but training was always fun enough, and she wanted to catch up to Jellal soon.

Getting permission to let her stay hadn't been very hard, either. Once Lily offered to take her on as a squire, King Faust had no qualms. Getting him to let her eat with Jellal and Lily at meals was another thing, but Lily managed to convince the king that Jellal had few people his age around, and that it was good that he got along so well with Erza. She lived with the Exceed in his barracks and found that despite his gruff appearance and slave-driving tendencies in training, he was actually quite kind and soft-hearted.

When she wasn't training, Erza would spend all her time with Jellal. She'd even join his etiquette and dancing lessons (and the teacher was very happy that Jellal finally had a partner to practice with). The two got along very well, and she looked up to the older boy. Despite being a little silly and childish, Jellal was actually very mature most of the time and knew a lot about everything. He helped teach her how to read and do math, and he taught her about the history of Edolas. He talked a lot, actually, but Erza didn't mind. She liked listening to his voice and how he'd get a certain glint in his eyes whenever he was particularly passionate about a certain subject.

Jellal liked Erza's company, too. The eye patch came off about a week after she first came, and he loved her eyes. They were warm and brown, and he loved how inquisitive they were, watching everything and then some, taking everything in to commit to memory. Lily was right; she really was quite beautiful, and he was glad to have someone as good as her be his friend.

Sometimes, the two wouldn't talk. Sometimes, they'd just lie together, side by side in the grass, and watch the islands and clouds in the sky. Sometimes, they'd just lie together, and _be_.

* * *

One such day, when the two were just lying outside, he asked. The skies were a pretty, clear blue and they were lying head to head. Erza had her eyes closed, when Jellal turned his head over to look at her and asked.

"What happened?"

The girl didn't open her eyes. "What do you mean?"

"With your parents. What happened to them?"

She pursed her lips and took a deep breath, her brows furrowing a bit.

"It's okay if it's still painful. You don't have to tell me; I was just curious."

Erza shook her head, still staring straight up at the sky. "No," she said, "It's okay."

And then she spoke.

Jellal listened, enraptured by the picture she painted with her words, a picture of her childhood and a small farming village. He listened as she talked about her mother, who passed away from a sickness when she was young, and her father, who was strong and funny and took care of her. He'd been in a magic guild before, but left to start a family and also because of the shortage of magic. Ten Commandments had been his weapon back then, and he used to tell her stories of fighting magnificent beasts on daring quests during his guild days, and how he and his best friend (and partner), Rob, had once tried to find a fairy with a tail to complete his guild's eternal quest. (They were unsuccessful.) Life had been good.

But then, one day, bandits attacked. They were looking for magic, among other things, to sell on the black market. They killed all the villagers who got in the way, and then some more. Her father had given her Ten Commandments and told her that it must never fall into their hands. She'd just taken it before a bandit shot him in the back like a coward, and with his last breaths, he told her to run away. There'd been a small patrol of knights nearby, and they'd rode into the village to help defend the people there when she told them about the slaughter taking place, but they were grossly outnumbered and all fell.

"They were so strong and kind," Erza said, eyes slightly glazed over. "They didn't have to help; my village was small, and they were on important business, but they did anyways, even though they all ended up dying. Not a single one turned tail and tried to escape."

That was the moment that she knew she wanted to be a knight, too. They'd helped her when she needed it, and even though they weren't successful, it'd been a brave and noble thing to do.

She ran from her village and spent weeks picking and selling mushrooms to get money for food until Jellal found her.

Jellal could feel a few tears spring to his eyes, and before he knew it, he got up and hugged his friend, really hard. "It's okay now," he said, and Erza sank into his embrace and he could feel the wetness from her eyes on his shirt. "Your father was brave. So were the knights. They were honorable. You'll grow up to be just like them, someday."

Erza looked up at her friend and smiled.

"Maybe I will."


	3. July 2, X775

Before they even knew it, Erza and Jellal had been together for a year. The year had been a fun one; Erza had finally put on some weight and looked healthy, Lily started to let them spar with wooden weapons, and the two pulled all sorts of pranks around the castle on everyone: the servants, the guards, and even the visiting nobles (only the ones they deemed to have a sense of humor, of course). The only one who was untouchable was the King, but that was understandable. Erza quickly learned that Jellal hadn't been joking when he mentioned that his father had "a heart cold as ice and black as coal" and wished to never have to see the man on the receiving end of a hilarious (but nonetheless humiliating) prank. It didn't even seem like a stretch to say that he'd execute whoever pulled it.

However, the biggest event of the year was Jellal's eleventh birthday. True to what he said about his birthday the year before, it had been spectacular. The servants had thrown a small party for the boy, which was amazing, and then later that night, there had even been a ball! Just for him! To be honest, Erza thought that Jellal looked quite dashing in his white suit. She felt awkward in her dress; she'd never worn anything so fancy and tended to stay away from skirts and dresses in general. Even after she stopped having to borrow Jellal's clothing, she still stuck to pants because they were the only things she could spar in.

Nonetheless, the night of July 2 X775 had been great fun. Everyone awwwwwwwwed when the two kids danced with each other (though said kids were rather oblivious of it), and they both pigged out on cake with each other.

"Erza," he started after the party was finally over, "When's your birthday? I remember you saying that it was only a little after mine, but we never celebrated it! We should throw a party this year."

Erza shrugged. "I don't know exactly. It's sometime during the summer harvest," she told him. "We don't really keep track of days."

"Then I'll give you one! Let's make it close to mine! How about July 6?" he asked.

"Jellal, you can't just give me a birthday," Erza protested.

"Yes I can! You already know the general period; I'm just going to make it more specific!"

Erza sighed. A whole year, and yet Jellal was still as childish as ever.

* * *

On July 6, X775, the servants, as per order of Prince Jellal of Edolas (though they would've done it even if he hadn't ordered it), threw a magnificent party for one ten year-old Erza. They baked a cake to rival the prince's, and anyone who was interested was invited. Many of the servants showed up (they loved the little girl who'd come to the castle and all thought that she and Jellal were absolutely adorable together), as did Captain Pantherlily (who by then began to see Erza as a daughter, just like how Jellal was a son).

And after the cake were the gifts.

Of course, being from servants, many of the gifts were fairly simple, but nonetheless, Erza still appreciated all of them the same. She got many sets of new clothes (most of the servants, being unable to find anything else, decided that this would be the safest option), a nice set of boots from Lily, an absolutely huge navy blue scarf from Jellal ("It's long, but that's good, because you're going to grow up to be a really big and strong knight, and I didn't want it to be too small then!"), and many, many cards. Most were from servants who didn't have enough to get a gift. Two were more interesting; they requested meetings.

* * *

As they lay together in the grass after the party, Erza finally spoke.

"I got your card. What was it that you wanted to tell me?"

Jellal turned his head and smiled. "Well," he started, "You know how I said I'd give you a second name?"

Erza nodded. She thought that he'd forgotten by now, as he never brought it up. "Yeah. I do."

"Well," he said again, "Since I promised to give you a birthday and I did, I figured that I had to make good of my promise to give you a name, too, or else you'd have thought that I'd forgotten." Seeing the girl's face, his mouth fell open into an 'o'. "Wait," he accused, "You did! You thought I forgot! Gods, what kind of person do you think I am?"

Erza smiled sheepishly. "You never brought it up afterwards," she argued. "How am I supposed to know what goes on in that thick skull of yours?"

"You take that back!" Jellal said, but he was smiling. "Take it back or else I won't tell you your second name!"

She snorted. "Yeah right. You crave attention too much to just forget about it. Knowing you, you probably put in a lot of hard work in coming up with it, and you want your efforts to pay off."

"You know me too well," he laughed. The two of them fell silent.

"It's 'Knightwalker'," he said abruptly.

"What?"

"Your name. I came up with 'Erza Knightwalker'," he elaborated.

"Why 'Knightwalker'?" she asked him, curious.

"Your biggest ambition is to become a knight, right? And you're doing all that you can to become one?"

"Well, yeah."

"So," he said, grinning, "Your name is 'Knightwalker'. One who walks the path of the knight."

"Not bad," Erza said, though actually, it was absolutely _brilliant_.

"Don't lie to me; you love it," he teased, "You think it's absolutely brilliant."

_Well, then you know me too well._ "Shut up," she said instead. "I guess it was pretty good."

The smile he beamed back was absolutely priceless.

 


	4. July 6, X775

Erza walked away from the meeting from the first card, smiling like a complete fool. She knew that she wouldn't walk away from the second meeting the same way. Actually, knowing the person, she'd most likely walk away in tears, or wanting to punch something really really badly.

She took a deep breath as she reached her destination before pushing open the large, heavy, ornate door.

 _Control yourself, Erza- no,_ Knightwalker _._

"Ou-sama." She bowed. "You wished to see me?"

"Ah, yes. Come stand closer to my desk, _girl_."

Erza warily approached the large desk and kept her gaze lowered towards the floor.

"I hear that it's been a little over a year since you first came to the castle," King Faust said.

"That is correct, heika," Erza replied meekly.

"You seem to have become very good friends with my son, _girl_. In fact," he continued, "Some of the servants have been saying that you have been a good influence on him."

"I was not aware of that, ou-sama," she said, slightly surprised. "If anything, Jellal has been a-"

"You will address your prince with respect, girl!" the king suddenly boomed.

" _Su-sumimasen_ , ou-sama. I-I was saying that if anything, Jellal-sama has been a good influence on me," she stammered.

"Exactly. After all, how can a dirty peasant girl like you positively influence the Prince of Edolas, _desu ne_?" he smiled.

Erza clenched her jaw in anger.

 _Control, Erza. Control,_ Knightwalker _._

"Anyways," he continued, "I'm surprised that he still plays with you. It appears that Jellal still can't quite distinguish those who have power from the trash that they should rule. I advise that you stay away from my son; your dirty blood might taint them."

"My blood is not dirty," Erza said quietly, half to herself.

"What was that, _girl_? Do you mean to say that I'm wrong? What can you know? You're just the daughter of a dirty peasant. The dirt runs in your veins, just as your blood does. Your very presence shames me and my son."

"Damare!" Erza shouted, forgetting who she was speaking to, "There is no dirt in my blood! The noble blood of my father runs through my veins! It makes me strong!"

"Your father? What can your dirty, weak, peasant of a father know of nobility, _girl_?"

" _Damare_! My father was a great man! He was kind and strong. What I don't know is how a man as stupid, as repulsive as you, a man who disrespects his subordinates, can know anything of honor, ou-sama," she shouted, voice dripping with sarcasm when addressing the king.

"Oh? So what do you know of honor, _girl_?"

"I know that you do not have it! I know that my father did, and that Jellal does, and so does Lily!"

Faust grinned. "I see what Jellal sees in you, _girl_. You have a fire inside of you, a fire that can become very useful if harnessed correctly."

Erza scowled. "I have a name, you know, heika. It's Erza, Erza _Knightwalker_!"

"Oh? 'Knightwalker', then? So that's the name that my boy came up with? Oh, don't look so surprised," he said, seeing the look on Erza's face, "I'm the King; I know of everything that happens on my grounds. Don't worry; I think it's a marvelous name."

"Why did you call me here today, heika?" Erza asked uneasily, unsure why the king had dropped all the malice in his tone.

"You wish to become a knight, correct? I wish to facilitate this dream of yours. In fact, I can promise you that if you accept my guidance, I will be able to have you command your very own Magic War Division by the time you're eighteen, just like Pantherlily-dono. What do you say, Erza-san?"

"What do you get out of it?"

"Let's just say that it's a long term investment. Come on, _Erza_ ; don't be foolish. This is all that you want, right?"

Erza walked away feeling like she just made a deal with the devil.


	5. July 10, X775

A couple days later, Jellal and Erza gained a new playmate. His parents (Edolas nobility) were going to send him to the Royal City to attend the Royal Military Academy with hopes of him enlisting in the Magic War Division when he graduated, but he ended up having to come a year early due to a few unfortunate... complications. In the mean time, he was to stay in the castle and shadow Jellal, much like how Erza did. They were the same age, and Faust probably thought that he'd be a good influence on the prince.

Oh, how wrong was he.

The day of his arrival, Jellal (and Erza, by extension; Jellal had refused to go without his friend) had to greet the newcomer. Jellal stood next to his father, each wearing their formal dress uniforms, and Erza stood with Pantherlily, who also wore his full uniform. Erza (refusing to wear a dress) had been allowed to wear a cadet's uniform, despite being two years too young to officially enroll in the RMA.

The party finally arrived, a grand carriage flanked by nine guards on horseback and six on foot. The lead guard dismounted his horse and knelt in front of the Edolas royalty.

"May I present," he said, "Young Lord Hughes, Heir Apparent of the Fief of Sycca."

 _Wow_ , Erza thought, _His title's even longer than Jellal's_!

The carriage door was opened by another guard, and a boy about Jellal's age stepped out. He was wearing a long, white jacket with a high, open collar over a black suit. There was a stripe of white in his purplish black hair, and there was a key-shaped object on his belt where a sword would have been normally. He bowed. "Ou-sama, ouji-sama, I am honored to be in your presence."

"Rise," the King said. "It is my pleasure to have you in the Royal City. This is my son, Jellal, and this is Captain Pantherlily of the Magic War Division of the Edolas Military." He gestured for Lily to come over and Hughes bowed again.

"It is an honor to meet you, Pantherlily-dono," he said solemnly.

The Exceed nodded in acknowledgement.

"You will be staying in a suite not far from my son's. You are expected to report for dinner in the dining room every day at seven and also take part in Jellal's training sessions with Commander Pantherlily. Do not leave the city, and do not leave the palace grounds without permission. I will trust my son to show you to your room," the king said. "I will see you tonight at dinner." He turned on his heel and left, half of the greeting party following him back into the castle, including Pantherlily. The only ones left were Jellal, Hughes, and Erza.

As soon as the adults left, Hughes quickly unbuttoned the rest of his jacket and popped the collar up. "Finally," he said, "I thought I was going to die from all the stiffness!"

Jellal and Erza looked at each other curiously.

"Yo, who are you?" he suddenly asked Erza, "Aren't you a bit too young to be a cadet? And the wrong gender?"

"Girls can join the military too, you know," she huffed in reply. "I'm Erza Knightwalker. I train with Jellal and Lily; I have been doing so for the past year. I live with Lily and am going to command my own Magic War Division once I graduate from the RMA."

"Lily?" Hughes asked, confused. He was unfazed by her hostile tone.

"Pantherlily," Jellal clarified. "He goes by Lily. Except don't call him that until he lets you drop the '-dono', or else he'll get mad. And don't insult Erza, too," he added threateningly, "She's scary when she's mad." _And so am I._

" _Sugee_!" he exclaimed, startling the two. "You guys are really close with Pantherlily-dono! And to each other! Are you dating?"

"Ew! Gods, no!" they both exclaimed at the same time.

"Oh. Well, give it a year or two and you will be," he said, wiggling his eyebrows.

"If he weren't nobility, I'd slap him," Jellal whispered to Erza.

"So what? I'm slapping him anyways," she retorted loudly. And she did just that.

* * *

If she overlooked his insistence that she and Jellal were soul mates and his overuse of the word " _sugee_ ", then Erza supposed that Hughes wasn't all that bad. He was very childish and carefree, but all that worked out for him. He worked hard at training sessions (though he still got his butt handed to him by the other two), and Pantherlily had told him that if he continued to work this hard, he'd not only be in the Magic War Division, but command a Magic War Division once he was older. Erza was slightly hurt by this; Lily used to only say that to her, but her feelings of inferiority were assuaged by the knowledge that the King himself had decided to back Erza's training.

Lily was right, though; Hughes, though admittedly weaker and less trained than Erza or Jellal, had a fighting spirit. He still treated everything as a game, but he took games very seriously, though "very serious" for him was still "pretty playful" for anyone else.

This playfulness often lead to him being a bit tactless, and as a result, he usually managed to say something insulting to one (or both) of them at least once a day. " _Urusai_ " was very commonly said around the boy.

" _Sugee_!" he exclaimed one day after fighting Erza. "I think you might be harder to fight than Jellal." Of course, this earned him a punch in the arm from the prince.

"Excuse me, but I can beat Erza easily," he retorted.

"Well yeah," Hughes replied, nonplussed. "I wasn't saying that Erza was better than you; on the contrary, your technique is much better and more polished. Erza's hard to fight because she's still a bit messy and she squirms around a lot so it's hard to hit her. Plus she's little." This, of course, earned him a kick to the head from the girl.

"I'm not messy!" she shouted. "You're just projecting!"

"Projecting?" Hughes asked.

"Yeah! You think that since you're messy, everyone else is, too!" she explained.

"Well, Hughes, your movements could be smaller and a bit more polished..." Jellal added.

"Well, so could Erza's!"

" _Urusai_!"

 


	6. August 1, X775

Part of the King's deal was that Erza had to meet with him once a month to discuss her progress in training. During these meetings, Erza would stand in front of the king and give him a full report on her training, while he'd nod his head in approval and ask more questions. However, they always ended the same way:

"Knightwalker," he would always say, "Can you defeat my son?"

The answer was always the same.

"No, heika, I cannot."


	7. August 27, X775

Pantherlily told Erza to bring her spear to practice.

_"What spear?" she asked. "I always just use the ones at the armory."_

_"No," he said, "I meant your magic spear. Ten Commandments."_

_"Oh! Why?"_

_Hughes seemed to give her an_ are you stupid _look. "It's because he's gonna let you train with it, dummy!"_

_"Hey!"_

_"At least she's smarter than you are," Jellal retorted._

_"Oh yeah, just go defend your girlfriend," Hughes smiled._

_"WE'RE_ NOT _DATING!"_

* * *

Erza held her Ten Commandments nervously as she waited for Jellal to get ready.

"Hurry up!"

"I'm coming! Just a sec; I can't find my pants!" his muffled voice came through the door.

She groaned. "Just let me in! I bet I can find them faster than you can."

"Yeah right."

She paused for a moment. "Fine then. If you find them first, I'll have to spend a week wearing a skirt. If I find them first, then you have to spend a week wearing your full dress uniform."

Erza could practically hear Jellal consider the bet. "Deal."

She heard the click of the door unlocking and the prince shuffling around in his room.

"Come on in."

Erza pushed the door open and entered Jellal's room. She hadn't been there for a while; in fact, the only time she'd ever spent a long period of time there had been the first day that she came to the castle and Jellal had let her use his bath to wash up. It hadn't changed much in the year and a half since her last stay. It was still fairly organized, especially for an eleven year old boy, and the color scheme was the same: navy, royal blue, and gray.

Jellal was standing behind his large bed, crossing his arms, and Erza hid a smirk. As he said earlier, he was indeed pantsless, and the prince clearly seemed unhappy about that.

"So, which pair are you looking for?" Erza asked, walking into the closet.

"The navy ones," he replied.

"Don't you have like fifty pairs of navy training pants?"

Jellal sighed as if that was the dumbest question he'd ever heard. "No. I only have eleven. And seven of them are too short, one is too long, and two are in the wash, so there's only one pair I can wear now."

"Can't you just, I dunno, wear one of your a hundred pairs of brown pants, then?" she asked. After all, Jellal's closet was crammed with clothes. It was organized very well, too: first by article, then by color, then by size, then by preference- but the sheer multitude of garments made it that much harder to find a specific article.

"It's only fifteen!" he said again, "And they're not just brown." He said the word with disdain. "Six are sepia, four are sienna, two are ochre, and one is russet, and two are khaki."

"Yeah, so dark brown, normal brown, gold-ish brown, reddish brown, and light brown. They're all just brown to me," she replied from the closet.

Jellal stuck his tongue out. "Well, I just want my navy pants. None of the others match my shirt right."

"Jellal, your shirt is _white_. _Everything_ goes with white."

"Like you'd ever understand. You just wear that uniform or some variation of it _eevery siiiiingle daaaaaaay_. You're not even a cadet! Like seriously, calm down a bit. You've still got two years to-" He was cut off by a pair of navy pants hitting him in the face.

"There. Happy?" she asked him, clearly ready to go to training.

He took the pants off his face and looked at them. "These are the ones that are too short. So, no. Keep trying."

Erza groaned. This was going to be quite annoying.

* * *

"Why are you looking in your winter coat section?" Erza asked the prince.

"Well," he retorted, "if my pants were actually in the pants section, where they're supposed to be, then we wouldn't have this problem now, would we?"

The two had been searching for at least twenty minutes now. Pantherlily was definitely going to be very mad. After all, they were late. He hated tardiness.

Just then, a smile broke out on Jellal's face. "Found them!" he exclaimed. "Ha! Suck it! You have to wear a skirt for a whole week, starting tomorrow!"

Erza groaned. "I bet you just hid those there just so you could get me in a skirt," she accused him.

"Nope! I won fair and square." He was swinging his pants above his head like a maniac, still dancing around in the closet.

"Oh my gods! _What are you two doing?_ "

The two of them turned to see Hughes at the door of Jellal's closet, his mouth wide open.

" _Sugee_! I knew it! You two are together!" And with that, he sprinted off.

"What? _No!_ " they both exclaimed but it was too late. The other boy was already off, probably to tell Pantherlily what they were doing instead of coming to practice on time.

Jellal quickly tried to get his pants on, before tripping himself and ending up on his butt, pants still around his ankles.

"Well crap," he said. "This is definitely not good."

* * *

"... and Jellal wasn't even wearing pants! He was just swinging them around over his head while shaking his hips, yelling, 'Suck it!'"

Jellal groaned as he heard Hughes' animated voice, no doubt telling Lily a very... _modified_ version of what happened.

Pantherlily looked up to see the two walking down. He raised his eyebrows. "What exactly happened?"

"Jellal couldn't find his pants-"

"- so Erza offered to help-"

"- and we had a bet-"

"- so if Erza found them first, I'd have to wear my full dress uniform for a week-"

"- and if he found them first, I'd have to wear a skirt or dress for a week-"

"- and when Hughes came in-"

"- Jellal had just found them and was gloating-"

"Hey! I do not _gloat_. I was  _celebrating_ ," Jellal suddenly said. "Anyways, so he saw me doing that-"

"- and immediately decided that this meant that we were a couple."

" _Sugee_!"

The three of them turned to look at Hughes.

"What? You're even finishing each other's sentences. Now you're _definitely_ a couple."

Pantherlily chuckled. "All right," he said. "Seems fair enough. However," he added, "you two shouldn't be in each other’s' rooms with your pants off. You're old enough to know that that's not okay. Secondly, you're both _late_."

The two gulped.

_Please spare us._

* * *

Pantherlily was a slave driver. Before long, he had the two of them doing sprints until they couldn’t take another step, which was when he changed their punishment to push ups until they felt their arms would fall off, so he then had them do sit ups until _he_ got tired. Hughes just stood off to the side, watching the two. Every once in a while, Erza would open her mouth to complain or argue, but Jellal would shoot her a look, and she’d sigh and then close it, taking whatever the Exceed had them do

Finally, it was time for a lunch break. Erza couldn’t be more grateful.

“Ugh. I never want to move again,” she said, lying on her back.

Jellal frowned. “Come on, Erza. It’s our fault that we were late.”

“You mean your fault. If you weren’t so stubborn about getting that one pair of pants that took us half an hour to find, then we would’ve been on time,” she retorted.

“Well, what’s done is done,”he replied nonchalantly. “So suck it up. Anyways, the cooks told me that we’re having your favorite…”

“STRAWBERRY CHEESECAKE?!?!?”

Jellal smiled. “Why of course.”

The redhead was up off the ground and sprinting towards the dining hall in no time.

* * *

“Boy that cheesecake was good,” Erza said while walking back to training after lunch.

“Isn’t it always?” Jellal asked.

“Shut up. You know what I mean. Hey,” she added, “Maybe I’ll be able to actually train with Ten Commandments this time. Since, you know, you made us late and we spent the rest of the morning doing conditioning.”

“Well, if you found my pants sooner, then maybe-”

“Uh, _you_ were the one who lost _your_ pants in the first place!”

“Actually, the _servants_ put my clothes away, so _I_ didn’t misplace it; _they_ did!”

“Well if _you_ weren’t such a fashionista and just wore one of your other hundreds of thousands of pants, none of this would’ve ever happened!”

“Hey! It’s not my fault that I actually care about my clothes matching. And I only have forty-three pairs of practice pants, not a hundred thousand, thank you very much.”

“You were wearing _white_ , Jellal. _Everything_ goes with white.”

The two were interrupted by a bout of uncontrollable laughter.

“You guys really are an old married couple!” Hughes exclaimed. “I mean, just listen to you!”

“Hey Erza.”

“Yeah?”

“Do you mind putting your training with Ten Commandments on hold until tomorrow?”

“Uh, why?”

“Cause we’re going to be doing conditioning all afternoon as well as punishment for beating up this jerkface right here.”

“Count me in.”

* * *

True to Jellal’s prediction, the two of them spent the rest of the afternoon doing suicides and burpees under Pantherlily’s watchful eye while Hughes sat on the side nursing a black eye and a bloody nose.

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is the first of three in the series, "The Prince and the Knight". The other two parts are "The Years Apart" and "The Future As One". Both of them are partially written as of when I'm first posting TPLG, but as TPLG is not finished yet, I will not be posting either as that would not make any sense. TYA will come as soon as I finish TPLG, and then TFAO will come right after TYA. Thank you, and I apologize in advance for any long waits, hiatuses, etc.


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